Created an initial draft of the game’s background story. Here it is:
Rockford is the main town where the player spends the entire game, both in the town above, and the dungeons below. Rockford is a small mining town in a secluded valley near large mountains. It’s got fertile soil and mountain streams nearby, plus a road leading eastward toward the bigger towns and cities that trade for the raw materials and fine smithed goods that Rockford produces. Rockford has always been a peaceful and prosperous place.
Peaceful, that is, until a few weeks ago, when an evil lich named Vicerius came into town late at night, stole a few things, killed a few people, then disappeared into the mine. He cackled that he had finally found the perfect base from which to build his undead army and control the surrounding lands. Vicerius took up his residency deep within the mine, and since that night the old mine has been transformed into a festering dungeon, filled with dreadful monsters who attack any intruders on sight.
You’ve just arrived in town looking for work after leaving your home village of Kurn, about 3 days walk away to the south. Kurn is a small farming village, but for some reason the crops have not been doing well recently, and you’ve never really wanted to be a farmer anyway, so you figured it was time to go and make a name for yourself as a blacksmith or a trader or an adventurer. Little did you know that you’d find the usually brave folk of Rockford in such dismay. It must be destiny…
Obviously this will continue to evolve. It’s also posted in our wiki at https://trac_dun1.arcanoria.webfactional.com/wiki/Lore.